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Oogie

BBC Earth

A BEETLE ADVENTURE

Oogie is a game for Oculus Rift and Gear VR, produced for BBC Earth. The player takes control of Oogie, a south african Oogpister Beetle and goes on an adventure to find a mate. Along the way players will encounter trials including swarms of ants, perilous drops and a hungry mongoose on the hunt. Throughout the game players sequentially unlock a BBC film narrated by David Attenborough documenting the life of the unique beetle.

I was Creative Lead on Oogie, driving the overall creative and design for the project from initial concept to final delivery.

Interactive Documentary

The game was initially conceived as an interactive documentary and as such, all of the players actions are closely based on the activity of the beetle in the wild. The world and its challenges were designed to showcase the Beetle’s unique abilities. Narrative beats and information are fed to the player through voice over throughout the game. In this way the player learns about the beetle they control as they move through the experience.

Challenges of building for Gear

Developing the game simultaneously for two platforms posed design challenges. The Oculus Rift version uses a controller, while the Gear version of Oogie exclusively uses contextual gaze/tap controls. The game is accordingly balanced for touch controls on Gear to make for a more streamlined gameplay experience.

Using Tilt Brush as a Design Tool

Whilst Oogie was always specifically designed for virtual reality, it was also absolutely core to its design process. In pre-production I designed all game environments in Tilt Brush. Using Tilt Brush as a tool in this way enabled me to quickly concept and develop environments to share them with the team and end client. This process enabled us to freely experiment and rapidly respond to feedback while iterating on designs.